Illegal Immigration Essay

ufeffMelissa Gonzalez
Professor Glasscock
WRC 1023
April 5th, 2014
Illegal immigration: Benefit or Disaster?

Illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States is a controversial topic all throughout the country. Even though there are many immigration laws concerning illegal aliens living in the United States, these people choose to ignore them and come to the United States for many reasons. Many United States citizens are against this, but what they don’t see is that these people are benefiting them and their economy in ways they can’t imagine.
United States citizens, sometimes even its residents that come from all over the world, criticize and trash illegal immigrants not being aware of the situation currently going on in Mexico. A drug war began in 2006 in Mexico and no one is safe ever since. More than 60,000 innocent people died not because they were involved in anything with the drug cartels, but simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. More than 26,000 people were reported missing (Shoichet). This is only a small number of the people they have recorded that died, but there are many more that were kept quiet and hidden from the public. It is true that many illegal immigrants from Mexico come to the United States because they want to live the American Dream. They want freedom and success, but most importantly, they want to be in a safe country. According to Eileen Shim, writer in PolicyMic, 3 of the world’s deadliest cities in 2013 are in Mexico, with Acapulco being number 2, Torreón being number 5 and Nuevo Laredo being number 8.
Illegal immigrants come from Mexico with the mentality that they have to work to get through and support a family. Some come by themselves, some bring their families with them, but they are all aware that if they have risked their lives and gone through so much trouble to get to the United States illegally, they have to work.
United States citizens do not see it this way. They think that they only come here to drain their economy because they do not pay taxes and they take advantage of the United States national welfare while not wanting to adopt their culture and bring our own. While all of this might be true, what these people aren’t aware of is that illegal immigrants will take the lowest paying jobs only to make some money to support themselves and their families. Since most employees know that these people do not have legal papers to work in the United States, they take advantage of them and pay them less than they would pay a U.S. citizen. These illegal immigrants take low paying jobs that many American citizens would never take even if they were in the worst situation. An estimate number of illegal immigrants taking jobs in the United States was made and the two states with the biggest numbers were California and Texas with over a million. California had 1,887,695 and Texas had 1,296,670 jobs taken (Passel, Cohn).

Some United States citizens claim to hate or highly dislike illegal immigrants, including the candidates running for office, which they make no secret that they do not want immigrants from Mexico in the United States. But who would do the low paying jobs if it weren’t for the Mexican illegal immigrants?

This image called The New American Gothic (The immigrants), show what it is supposed to be an American woman and the stereotypical Mexican man with a big belly and mustache. The man has written on his belly “Low Wage Immigrant Farm Workers” and he is saying to her “you can’t live without me”. She is trying to pull away from him with a disgusted face but she realizes that what he is saying is true. “The cartoon represents the need and dependency Americans have for Low Wage Immigrant Workers, especially from Mexico” (The Immigrants). These workers are willing to do the job many Americans are not willing to do for less money and this actually helps the economy.

This cartoon by Nick Anderson

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